IBEW railroad branch members covered under the U.S. National Freight Agreement ratified the proposed 2015-2019 contract in May, International President Lonnie Stephenson announced, and arbitration is set to resolve the few remaining issues.

Signals and communications workers at CN Railway in Canada ratified a new 5-year contact at the end of April, beating back company demands for concessions and ensuring stability for the more than 700 IBEW members through 2021.

Among the list of national priorities supported by red and blue voters is funding America’s passenger railroad, Amtrak. Almost 31 million passengers took an Amtrak train last year. That’s up 4 percent over the previous year.

If the Long Island Railroad were a city it would be bigger than Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Every weekday, more than 335,000 passengers ride the LIRR. At the busiest stations in the working class towns of Ronkonkoma and Hicksville, tens of thousands flow into Manhattan in the morning and flow back out at the end of the day.

President Barack Obama announced the creation of a presidential emergency board June 15 to end four years of stalled contract negotiations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the IBEW and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) rejected federal efforts to end four years of stalled contract negotiations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the IBEW on May 8.